Advocates for disabled upset man set free

Daniel Tepfer

Published 9:21 pm, Saturday, October 6, 2012

BRIDGEPORT -- Advocates for the disabled are outraged about a recent state Supreme Court decision setting free a local man who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a severely handicapped woman.

A state legislator said he will push to change the law on which the court based its decision. Previous attempts by the state Legislature at such reform failed.

"In effect, the Supreme Court has determined that the current language (of the law) requires a victim of sexual assault who has significant difficulty with verbal communication to physically resist her attacker," said James D. McGaughey, executive director of the Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities. "Our law does not require physical resistance by any other victims of sexual assault. We need to rectify this discriminatory standard as soon as possible."

"The court's interpretation of what it means to be `physically helpless' jeopardizes the safety of people with disabilities," she said.

For Lois Johnston, a Ridgefield woman who is the primary caregiver for her adult daughter, a nonverbal quadriplegic, the court's ruling was particularly upsetting.

"This decision scares me because it means there is no protection for people like my daughter," she said. "Now we have a rapist who is free and able to do the same thing to someone else's disabled child."

In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that despite evidence the 26-year-old woman cannot speak and has little body movement, there was no evidence she could not communicate her refusal to have sex with the defendant, Richard Fourtin Jr. As a result of the ruling, Fourtin goes free and cannot be tried on that case again.

State's Attorney John Smriga said Friday that his office has filed a motion requesting the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

In January 2008, the 28-year-old Fourtin was convicted by a jury here of attempted second-degree and fourth-degree sexual assault and sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting the severely handicapped woman in the Success Village housing complex in 2005.

The woman, now 29, who in court went only by her initials, L.K., has severe cerebral palsy and cannot verbally communicate. She is so physically restricted that she is able to make motions with only her right index finger.

In order for the woman to testify during the trial, a small video camera was placed over her and a tray affixed to her chair. On the tray, the prosecutor placed a board printed with the alphabet, along with "yes" and "no" on top.

After each question, the woman's left hand would push her right hand, index finger sticking out, across the board to either spell out a word or answer yes or no. The exhausting process lasted four days.

However, the defense argued that there was evidence the woman could communicate by biting, kicking, screaming and gesturing. They presented testimony at trial from a home health aide who said the woman would kick and groan if she didn't get food she wanted.

"We are not persuaded that the victim was either unconscious or so uncommunicative that she was physically incapable of manifesting to the defendant her lack of consent to sexual intercourse at the time of the alleged sexual assault," the high court ruled.

"The Fourtin decision has made it imperative that we make sure persons with disabilities are protected against sexual assault," said state Rep. Gerald Fox III, D-Stamford, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee. "I will again push for legislation to clarify this state law."